- Generally, the management of many is the same as the management of
the few. It is a matter of organization.
- And to control many is the same as to control few. This is a
matter of formation and signals.
- That the army is certain to sustain the enemy’s attack
without suffering defeat is due to operations of the extraordinary and the normal forces.
- Troops thrown against the enemy as grindstone against eggs is an
example of a solid acting upon a void.
- Generally, in battle, use the normal force to engage; use the
extraordinary to win.
- Now the resources of those skilled in the use of extraordinary
forces are as infinite as the heavens and earth; as inexhaustible as the flow of the great
rivers.
- For they end and recommence; cyclical, as are the environments of
the sun and moon. They die away and are reborn; recurrent, as are the passing seasons.
- The musical notes are only five in number but their melodies are
so numerous that one cannot hear them all.
- The primary colors are only five in number but their combinations
are so infinite that one cannot visualize them all.
- The favors are only five in number but their blends are so various
that one cannot taste them all.
- In battle, there are the normal and extraordinary forces, but
their combinations are limitless; none can comprehend them all.
- For these two forces are mutually reproductive; their interaction
as endless as that of interlocked rings. Who can determine where one ends and the other
begins?
- When torrential water tosses boulders, it is because of its
momentum.
- When the strike of the hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is
because of timing.
- Thus the momentum of one skilled in war is overwhelming, and his
attack precisely regulated.
- His potential is that of a fully drawn crossbow; his timing, the
release of a trigger.
- In the tumult and uproar the battle seems chaotic, but there is no
disorder; the troops appear to be milling about in circles but cannot be defeated.
- Apparent confusion is a product of good order; apparent cowardice,
of courage, apparent weakness, of strength.
- Order or disorder depends on organization; courage or cowardice on
circumstances; strength or weakness on dispositions.
- Thus, those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a
situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take,
and with lures of ostensible profit, they await him in strength.
- Therefore, a skilled commander seeks victory from the situation
and does not demand it of his subordinates.
- He selects his men and they exploit the situation.
- (not recorded)
- He who relies on the situation uses his men in fighting as one
rolls logs or stones. Now the nature of logs and stones is that on stable ground they are
static; on unstable ground, they move. If square, they stop; if round they roll.
- Thus, the potential of troops skillfully commanded in battle may
be compared to that of round boulders, which roll down from mountain heights.
